20 September 2010

i went to knoxville this weekend for the game between the university of tennessee volunteers and the florida technical community college alligators. it was a good time to be had by all. i will post a bunch of pictures now that will make y'all want to join me next time. we started the day at the gaylord's house (above).captain mark

some of the ladies

some of the guys. the guy in the iowa shirt is dating a tennessee friend. he conceded that the game was the loudest sporting event he'd ever been to and acknowledged the sec as far superior to the big 11.

there was some beautiful scenery along the 22 mile trip upstream to the game, like this giant flag. and some cliffs and stuff.

pretty much every tennessee grad has a house like this because were all so smart.

more cliffs!boat traffic; we're getting close!

downtown knoxville! we've arrived. stay tuned for more on the vol navy and the neyland renovations tomorrow.

lady gaga...if i had to choose an advocate for gay rights, she wouldn't be my first choice. but i think she's doing a good job. she had a rally in portland maine today in an effort to convince olympia snowe or susan collins to vote for repeal and nullify john mccain's attempt to filibuster.

colonel reb! the racist ass ole miss plantation owner mascot! as always, the new york times has its finger on the pulse of liberal elitist news:

“There’s no more of a noble cause than continuing the tradition of Colonel Reb,” said Mr. West, standing in the baking Mississippi heat in a giant stuffed mask and foam shoes. “Everyone loves the guy.”

Well, not quite everyone. After many years of complaints about the racial insensitivity of having a man dressed as a Confederate soldier as the symbol of a university where 14 percent of students are black, Ole Miss is pulling the plug on Colonel Reb this football season. (via)

in the 1840s, supporters of whig presidential candidate william henry harrison described incumbent democratic president martin van buren as "luxury-loving." boston's pro-whig atlas described van buren as a "dandy" in "nicely plaited ruffles," who was "leading off a minuet"...

icydak what a minuet is, it's a 17th century court dance, originating from the french word for dainty. sounds pretty gay already amiright? kylie found a picture of what it looks like (see also what i did this weekend). please take note of the faggot's nicely plaited ruffles and his delicate toe pointing:

we had a UT tailgate to prepare for our game against the florida gaytorz. you all probably know by now that we lost, but we tried to have fun anyway. there was only one rule: bring something orange and/or white to eat and/or drink. most people followed the rules, but john insisted on making only green things. i let him, because he went to auburn, and i never would've supported the tigereagles via food, had the tables been turned.

the standout item was definitely rachel's "buffalo pie", which was extremely divisive among attendees. it should be noted, however, that the only people who thought it sounded "gross" were the ones who arrived too late to try some. so i have to assume this was merely the result of jealousy and disappointment. it was delicious, and we might have some for dinner tonight.

after the sukkahs, lillywhitefish and starla joined us to see the town. and guess what. 11 biscuits!!

don draper made a pretty good cop. when he yelled at the criminals, i wanted to just go to jail for them so he wouldn't be upset anymore. and serena van der woodson was hilarious! standout line: "you gotta chase the rabbit if you want the tail. my motha taught me that." just great.

john, liz herber, and i went to see the sukkahs in union square yesterday. they were mostly disappointing, often looking very little like their renderings. i suppose that's to be expected. from what i can tell, the 12 finalists were given $10,000 to construct their proposals. anyway, here are some pixies.

this one, called the shim sukkah, was unanimously our favorite construction.

come on.

this team used a portion of their stipend to buy signs made by homelesses. nice idea.

pretty strings.

this'n looked like something a cat coughed up on the outside, but the plants suspended inside were very pretty.

you can just click here to see all the finalists' proposals, and vote too if you want too.

...when i told you about christopher hitchens and his fight against esophageal cancer. he's written another piece in vanity fair, this time regarding an official "everybody pray for christopher hitchens day", which is scheduled for today. the notorious atheist discusses his emotional and intellectual response to the declaration:

The most comprehensive investigation of the subject ever conducted—the “Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer,” of 2006—could find no correlation at all between the number and regularity of prayers offered and the likelihood that the person being prayed for would have improved chances. But it did find a small but interesting negative correlation, in that some patients suffered slight additional woe when they failed to manifest any improvement. They felt that they had disappointed their devoted supporters. And morale is another unquantifiable factor in survival. I now understand this better than I did when I first read it. An enormous number of secular and atheist friends have told me encouraging and flattering things like: “If anyone can beat this, you can”; “Cancer has no chance against someone like you”; “We know you can vanquish this.” On bad days, and even on better ones, such exhortations can have a vaguely depressing effect. If I check out, I’ll be letting all these comrades down. A different secular problem also occurs to me: what if I pulled through and the pious faction contentedly claimed that their prayers had been answered? That would somehow be irritating. (via)